Loyalty Beyond Reproach
by TheWhiteW0lf
Summary: Day 7: (Sunday, Feb 2nd): Free Day (anything goes as long as it's Lauriver!) After a long time of her spreading out her wings as a vigilante in her own right, Laurel finds out that Oliver is missing, and has been caught by Adrian Chase. Laurel sets out to ensure that he is returned safely.


Black Canary watched from her perch above the remnants of the Irish Mob. They had been operating out of Blüdhaven, it had taken her the better part of three months to disrupt their syndicate and then proceed to tear it down.

She had caught _The Skipper _, The Mob Boss, unawares in an underground gambling circuit she had raided the building, and took them out with only minor injuries and a gash on her cheek.

That action, while hasty, and impulsive had heralded two things. One being, the fracturing and subsequent paranoia of the Irish Mob, second, was having a hit put on Black Canary's head, which became null and void, as she either seized their dirty money or cut off their incoming funds and operations. No money, no hit.

A week later, she had taken down the next in line. That was a few days ago, now she was simply cleaning up the remaining operations of The Mob, to allow the BPD, to recover and restore order.

It was then that she saw the two members open a duffle bag filled to the brim with Slam and Vertigo. Black Canary dropped from her perch. As she dropped, she silently choked out one of the members and allowed the man to drop to the cement unconscious. It was at that moment they pulled out their guns.

She kicked one thug, and disarmed another by sending them over her shoulder, and knocking him out. She then grabbed the leader of the operation and put her boot to his chest.

"Where are your other operations?" She asked tersely.

"Who-What are you?" The man asked he was terrified.

"I'm the justice, you cannot run from!" She answered, before applying more pressure with her boot, hearing his labored breaths. "Answer my question!" She growled.

"I… Don't think so. We were just getting enough money to live."

Black Canary smirked. "Well, I have great news for you. You and your buddies will be an all-expenses-paid for cell in Iron Heights."She slugged him, knocking him out and turned on her heel, as she heard footfalls echoing towards her. Two men with baseball bats ran at her only to receive an arrow in each of their shoulders.

That had surprised her, Ollie was dealing with The Throwing Star Killer, and a mad gunman attacking not just Green Arrow, but also Oliver Queen. She had been watching the news religiously to find information about Star City since she had left home almost a year ago, following her narrowly escaping her murder.

Black Canary ducked behind a pillar to avoid being shot. She then pulled out a small flashlight from her pocket to get a better look at the arrows to ensure that they were, in fact, Ollie's, and not Merlyn's, or another archer with his or her head having a few screws loose.

As she examined the missiles, they weren't green, nor black. They were red.

_Not Ollie, nor his new apprentice, Helena, Nyssa, Malcolm, Komodo, nor remnants of The League. _ She surmised. _Either Cupid, Roy or… _

Clapping echoed on the open floor of the construction site. Black Canary turned on her heel abruptly, holding her nightstick ready to deflect the incoming arrows.

Only she need not worry, out of the shadows, stood a woman with a small cocky grin. A woman that she trusted and loved as if she were her own baby sister. "Speedy?"

Speedy lazily held her bow in her hand as she walked up to her. As she approached both women enveloped each other in a hug.

"I missed you, Laurel," Thea whispered in her ear.

"Me, too Thea." Laurel squeezed her surrogate sister a little tighter, enjoying their reunion.

The two hadn't seen each other for almost just over nine months when she had returned from Central City and started up her training with Ted and sticking to The Glades.

She hadn't been on_ the _team since she had survived her surgery and Sara arriving and getting a yellow speedster to rush her into the Waverider to remove an embolism before it could become fatal.

A stupid argument between her and Ollie, about her continuing being the Black Canary, and not wanting things to get weird or uncomfortable after her confession to him, about her still loving him. She had left the team, and helped Barry with Zoom and learned how to control her Canary Cry.

Laurel had taken Thea to her apartment, to avoid the police and offered her some leftover Chinese food and a bottle of water. As they sat there, she felt fear settle in her stomach. The usually rambunctious woman was almost silent. Eerily so.

"What happened, Speedy?" She asked softly, as she held her hands to prevent them from trembling.

"Oll…Ollie-Ollie's gone, Laurel. He was kidnapped and Dig, Felicity and the new team haven't found him. And they won't tell me much. I need you home. _He _needs you, Laurel." She pled, with unshed tears in her hazel eyes.

Laurel exhaled a shaky breath. The younger woman must have thought that the breath symbolized her hesitance to help, in reality, it was anxiety and fear.

Thea continued to appeal to Laurel to help her brother. "I don't know what happened after Iron Heights, or why you decided to train with Barry, Ted and then Nyssa, before going out on your own." She said as she grasped Laurel's hands into her own. "But Ollie is all that is left of my family, apart from you, William and Quentin. You are _his _family, and _our _family needs you."

Laurel nodded. "Ok."

Thea's head spun towards her surrogate sister; her eyes wide. "What? Just like that?"

Laurel smirked, before gently brushing a tendril of hair behind Thea's ear. "Rejection wasn't on the table, it never was."

Thea looked at her with elation and pride. "Get what you need, and I will call a cab."

Laurel nodded, as she walked to her bedroom, to pack some clothes and kneel down to remove a couple of floorboards to pick up her equipment.

She returned and left with Thea to Star City, she was going home. When she arrived, Thea had taken her into her old apartment. Nothing had really changed, apart from a few of her possessions missing, Ted had allowed her to move her possessions in his old storage locker when she revealed she was planning on leaving the city for the foreseeable future.

"I didn't take you off the lease." Thea murmured, as she saw Laurel look around the apartment.

Thea handed her a couple of papers, a timeline she had constructed on Oliver's whereabouts from a week prior to his abduction. "I know that he was taken while he was in his suit. Chase-Prometheus took him."

Laurel flicked through the papers before putting them down and walking into her old room to change into her suit. She returned to the main room, Laurel clipped her baton to her leg. "I'll get him back to you." As she said it, she gently patted her on the shoulder.

She then jumped out the window, the first person she had to visit was her father, not just to get information, but to see him.

She opened his window, only to hear his gun cock. "Don't think you want to kill me, Dad."

Lance dropped his gun as he embraced his eldest daughter. "Your back home, permanently?" He asked in a hopeful voice.

"I don't know, Daddy. But Ollie needs my help."

Lance nodded, his brows furrowing. "What do you know about Prometheus and Adrian Chase?"

Laurel shrugged. "He took the District Attorney position after I rejected Ollie's proposal. As to Prometheus, from what Thea has told me, and what I've heard in the news was that he is the serial killer and Ollie has been hunting this past year."

"Yeah, he has a thing for Oliver. A vendetta, because Oliver killed Chase's dad in his first year back. Justin Clayborne."

"The guy that was extorting people with TB, right?" Laurel asked, thinking back to when Oliver had returned from the island as The Hood. A man who would hunt down ruthless criminals hiding behind the veneer of a legitimate business.

"Yeah, that's the guy." Her father said, likely thinking about the same thing.

Laurel brushed her hair back with her fingers. "You Ok Dad?"

"Yeah, working as an adviser to Green Arrow and Deputy Mayor, is making a real impact. You?"

She nodded, sullenly. "I'll feel better after I bring Ollie home."

Her father chuckled lightly. "I told him to give you a call after Prometheus was becoming more of a threat. He said that you were too busy, between Allen, Grant, Sara, Nyssa and your own crusade in Blüdhaven."

"He was always stubborn."

Her father chuckled lightly, as he nodded. "You gonna get help from Diggle, Felicity, and the new team? Or at the very least, Grant or Nyssa?"

"No. This is a family matter" She then walked towards the window and climbed out and left in the darkness.

"And she calls Queen stubborn." He mumbled as he returned to his paperwork.

Black Canary recalled the paperwork that Thea had given her, Evelyn Sharpe, AKA Artemis, had been making regular disappearances and returning before she went rogue.

She patrolled the rooftops, eventually seeing the Star City's newest archer. She slowly approached Oliver's fallen student. "We need to talk."

Artemis scowled as she drew her bow and loosed an arrow at the Black Canary.

Black Canary deflected the arrow with her baton and moved in to close the distance. Sharpe dropped her bow, and withdrew a gun, Black Canary, grabbed the gun with one hand, and sent her elbow to the girl's face, forcing her to drop the pistol.

She then dragged the dazed girl, pulling out a grapple arrow from Artemis' quiver and tying the cord around her left ankle and picked up the archer's bow and fired the grapple arrow into the concrete.

Canary then pushed Artemis closer to the edge of the roof. "Where is Oliver?" She growled.

The girl shrugged, with a smug grin on her face. "I don't know. But he's in hell or will be."

Black Canary grabbed the collar of the girl's jacket in her fist and held her over the edge. "Last chance. I don't want to hurt you, you've been manipulated."

"Why do you care anyway? They said that you abandoned him, and his mission!"

"Fine. You don't wanna talk about Ollie?" Canary asked. "Then let's talk about your new buddy, Adrian Chase, Simon Morrison, Prometheus, or whatever name he is moonlighting around as."

"With Oliver." The girl replied with a smirk.

"Another snide remark and I will push you off this ledge. You're angry and misguided. I don't want to hurt you. And it's not too late to come back from the edge." Black Canary pulled her back from the edge of the building and held out her hand to the girl who was grieving and was lost. It was an olive branch.

She could take the girl back to Blüdhaven, and train her. She would try to train her in a way that Oliver hadn't been able to. She would teach the girl as Ted and Nyssa had for her. A fair but firm hand compared to Ollie's more sometimes ruthless, if not a tough-love approach.

"My mind is clear, and you won't do anything." The turncoat said challenging the older vigilante, who still held her back from the edge.

Canary sighed as Evelyn made her decision. She had chosen to fall off the edge both metaphorically and literally so, she let go of the girl's collar. "I'm sorry to hear that." Sharpe fell down screaming. She fell about one and a half stories before the cable had run out of reach, suspending the girl who had betrayed Oliver on the side of the large building.

Laurel activated her Comms. "Dad, Evelyn Sharpe is suspended from the rooftop on the corner of O'Neil, and Dillin."

_"Thanks, Sweetheart." _

After some more cohesion, she had received the information on the area Ollie was being kept. As she started to walk away, a floating orb was in front of her.

"Canary! Overwatch intercepted your transmission." Spartan called out. She turned on her heel. Spartan looked between her and his dangling former teammate.

Wild Dog looked at the woman in front of him with his guns raised. "What's the move, Hoss?"

Spartan shoved his gun into its holster. "A heads up, that you're in town would have been good."

"What about telling me that _he _was taken?" Black Canary asked curtly.

"You left the team." He replied coolly. "We don't tell The Legends, or Team Flash everything either. Compartmentalization. You know that."

She clenched her fist, her nails digging into her palm. "Well, apparently not everyone feels the same."

"Go, home Laurel," Diggle commanded, as he stood a few feet from Laurel, towering over her smaller frame.

She clicked her tongue. "As you just said. I'm not on your team, and I certainly don't take orders from you. And I'm gonna leave this rooftop, either quietly or _very _loudly. I will let you be the one to decide how this will end, John."

Digg gave a short jerk of his head, at the silent words that were in his ear, likely from Felicity. As he raised his gun, Wild Dog and Terrific got into position. "Last chance, Laurel. Go back to Blüdhaven, or we will make you leave with your tail between your legs."

Laurel gave a small chuckle. "I think, I'll take my chances." She said with her lips slightly upturned. She then, without warning or preamble screamed her canary cry.

_SCREEEEEEEEEEE! _

While Diggle and the others clutched their ears and were distracted, Laurel jumped across several rooftops, before disappearing into the night and avoiding CCTV and traffic cameras.

** :-:-::-:-::-:-:**

Team Arrow returned to The Bunker. Diggle walked up to the Command Center as Rene and Curtis walked into the change rooms.

"You let her get away?" Felicity asked as she spun her chair around to look at her friend.

Diggle shrugged. "Wasn't really our decision. Her cry was a lot stronger and more focused than what we had predicted. I also didn't think she would use it on us."

Felicity scowled. "You don't think Cisco lied about not knowing to what extent her meta-gene has changed her?"

Diggle tapped his helmet with his fingers idly. "I don't know. But to be fair, we don't know much of what she has done since she has been operating in Blüdhaven."

Felicity brought up articles mentioning Black Canary and Nyssa around the world. Sydney, London, Tel Aviv, Cape Verde and mixed reports in Mumbai and in and around Georgia and Armenia.

"She has been training for the better part of a year since she abandoned the team. I even saw a report of two blonde women one dressed in black, the other in white leather during The Boxer Rebellion. And another report of a woman dressed in black leather in Norway during The Viking Age."

Rene walked in, holding his sore shoulder. "Trinity has been around the world and time? Why? And who is she anyway?"

Felicity and Diggle looked at each other before looking at their teammate. "She… She was close to Oliver after she almost died at the hands of Darhk, she left us to clean up HIVE. After she healed, Laurel decided to help Barry in Central City against Zoom, which was fair enough." Diggle said.

Felicity then continued. "But she didn't come back… Well, she came back to Star City. Laurel rejected the D.A. position and fought alongside a former vigilante in The Glades. Someone, Oliver, John and myself, doesn't trust."

Felicity shook her head as she remembered the team falling apart around Oliver. "She then left to travel the world with a friend of ours. I think she was trying to spread her wings, step out of the shadow of that was cast by Oliver, Barry and The Legends." She then held out her arms in a gesture emphasize her point. "Make Black Canary a name that's not entirely linked to Green Arrow, nor Sara."

Curtis then walked in, holding an ice pack to the back of his neck. Laurel's cry had launched him the furthest and into the concrete wall. "Who told her about Oliver? How did she find Evelyn? Does she know where Prometheus is?"

Diggle pinched the bridge of his nose. "Thea, Quentin, Sara, Cisco?"

"Why would they call Laurel and not give us information?" Curtis asked.

Diggle sighed. "When it comes to the Queens and Lance families… They bicker and fight amongst each other until they are all bloody, bruised and tired, but if one of them is in trouble, it's like they have tunnel vision, a blind spot, which is very clear with Oliver and Laurel. They will do anything for their family."

Felicity hummed her agreement with Diggle's assessment. "And judging from what I heard and saw, she has adopted more brutal interrogation tactics. I mean, throwing girls off of buildings wasn't her style before she was almost murdered." She said with disappointment. "It's almost like she isn't Laurel anymore."

Rene shrugged his shoulders. "Almost dying in the field, it does tend to change people's perspectives. But could she just be doing whatever it takes to save Oliver? You said they were pretty tight."

Curtis shrugged, wincing as he did so. "She was always an optimist. She and Lance inspired Oliver to take up the role as mayor. She abandoned her fight in the light. She stepped into the shadows as Oliver stepped a foot into the light."

Rene shrugged. His three teammates seemed steadfast in their belief that their former comrade and old friend had gone rogue after she was almost murdered. But this woman hadn't killed Evelyn, in fact, she went to the length to tie her to the grapple arrow lodged into the chimney.

**:-:-::-:-::-:-:**

Laurel found the warehouse and snuck in. She hadn't heard any people within the corridors, as she advanced in, she found a man standing over a bloody and bruised Oliver.

"Leave him alone." She growled as she unclipped her nightstick.

"Miss Lance, I have to say, I hadn't expected you to turn up. Thea, I presume?" Chase asked with a cruel grin.

Black Canary twirled her baton in her hand. "You mess with Ollie; you have to deal with me!"

Chase rolled to pick up his bow. Though before he could shoot her, Black Canary used her cry sending him through the wall.

She slowly inched closer to the hole in the wall to see that Chase had escaped. She returned to the unconscious Oliver and cradled his head in her lap.

"I'm here, Ollie. I'm here, Chase can't hurt you." She cooed softly.

After a few minutes, Oliver blinked a few times seeing Laurel in a new suit cradling his head in her lap, and gently stroking his hair. "I'm hallucinating."

She shook her head. "Nope. One hundred percent, genuine Laurel Lance."

"You changed your suit." He croaked. Of course, he was the first to notice or at least mention her new suit. But before she could speak, he did. "I'm sorry, Laurel. I should have fought for you. I need you in my life. I love you."

She brushed his apology to the side, as she gently got him to his feet and warapped his arm around her neck and guided him out of the torture chamber.

"I love you, Laurel. I didn't want to see you hurt, so I pushed you away… But after The Dominators, they showed me my ideal life. You. You're my everything and no matter how much we pull away; the universe keeps pushing us back together."

While Laurel was away, he felt like he had lost a piece of himself. She had left to help Barry and learn how to use her new power, then she returned.

He had offered her the position of DA. She had initially accepted it, before rejecting the position, saying that she didn't want reports of nepotism or her sleeping for the position. All valid arguments, that hid the real reason. The cloud that was hanging over them. Her confession after her surgery.

So, after she had started working with Ted Grant again, to help him recover his long-lost son from Culebras, he kept tabs on her. He continued to do this even when she left with Nyssa, the only time she went off the grid was a few hours after she packed her belongings away.

Sara and Ray later confirmed that she was helping the Legends, as well as training with Sara and Amaya.

"Me too, Ollie. I love you too." She couldn't help but smile at the thought of them trying again.

As they made their way to Laurel and Thea's apartment, Oliver blinked. "Who told you that I needed help?"

"Speedy."

Oliver gave a slight chuckle despite his sore chest. "She always thought you and I were meant to be." He said as he started coughing and spluttering.

"She also knows that you and I would move heaven and earth for our family, and that is what we are. Family, for better or worse."

"For better or worse," Oliver repeated as she helped him climb the fire escape and into her apartment.

Laurel was home, his family was finally whole again. He was home.


End file.
